Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Iraq sharing US (and Israeli?) intelligence with Russia?

Over the weekend, the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command announced that it would enter into an intelligence sharing agreement “about ISIS terrorism” with Syria, Russia and Iran.
Exactly what sort of information Iraq agreed to share with Russia, or
has shared already, was a matter of some confusion during Tuesday’s
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob
Work acknowledged that the Defense Department doesn’t have a firm handle
on the sort of communications going on between the Iraqi government
and Moscow.

“We were caught by surprise that Iraq entered into this agreement
with Syria, Iran and Russia. Obviously, we are not going to share
intelligence with either Syria, or Russia, or Iran. So we are in the
process of working to try and find out exactly what Iraq has said.
Certainly we are not going to provide any classified information that
would help those actors on the battlefield.” Work said in response to a
question from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Russia was in
Syria primarily to bolster President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s claims this week that his forces were in
Syria to defeat the Islamic State was, Clapper said, “a
belated motivation.”

Clapper suggested that mutual mistrust between the parties could
limit the scope of the Iraq’s intelligence sharing agreement. “As far as
the joint intelligence arrangement is concerned. Can’t go into detail
here in this forum … But each of the parties entering into this are a
little bit suspicious of just what is entailed here. We will have to see
how robust a capability that actually provides.”

U.S. Cyber Command commander and NSA
chief Adm. Michael Rogers identified Russia as probably the most
capable adversary the United States faces online. The recent breach of
the Joint Staff civilian email system, for instance, has been attributed
to a Russian affiliated group and affected as many as 4,000
email accounts.

In fiscal 2015, Congress appropriated more than $1.6 billion in train and equip funding
for the Iraqi military, including trucks and small arms but also some
potentially sensitive pieces of equipment related to improvised
explosive device detection. Detailed information about how U.S.
troops detect mines and explosive devices on the battlefield could
represent a vulnerability for the United States if that equipment were
to fall into the wrong hands. And then there are the people, more than
3,550 U.S. troops are in Iraq right now officially serving in train and assist roles. But that’s not all they do. In May, a U.S. Special Forces raid resulted in the death of Abu Sayyaf, an ISIS senior leader in Syria.

It's kind of hard to believe that Israel is not sharing intelligence with the US on an area that's quite close to our eastern and northern borders. Was our information shared too?

If you're looking for Obama, he's on the golf course, trying to find a way to blame Bush.

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com